After 1177 B.C. the survival of civilizations
by Cline, Eric H. 1960-
pub. by Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ, USA, 2024 isbn - 978-069119213-0
- - 315 p. - maps and time tables p. xxvii - xxxvi - Black and White photos - Authors note and acknowledgments p.201-206 - Dramatis Personae (names of ancient people) p. 207-211 - Notes p. 213-229 - Bibliograpny p. 251-303 - Index p. 305-314
This book in the planned series Turning Points in Ancient History, series editor Barry Strauss.
Cline starts where his previous book 1177 B.C. the Year Civilization Collapsed left off and follows what seems to have happened in the various civilizations of the Eastern Meditarranean and Mesopotamia. Describing which more-or-less survived intact, which muddled through, and the few that seemingly totally failed as organized societies.
Chapter 1. Egypt, Israel, and the southern Levant p. 7
Chapter 2. Assyria and Babylonia p. 42
Chapter 3. Phonecia and Cyprus p. 80
Chapter 4. Anatolia and N. Syria (Carchemish) p. 111
Chapter 5. Agean Region (Greece - Mycenae) p. 134
- - - - - then the chapter 6. explaining from Collapse to Resilience - - - followed by the Epilogue p. 195
The authors notes, Dramatis Personae (names and dates of historical characters), Notes, References, and Index take up pages 210-315
You can see that this book is well researched and internally described.
This is a good read, but in the latter part is more analytical than descriptive.
The first part is as his previous book, a description of each area and how it managed, or did not.
Then Cline discusses the possible details of societal collapse.
As with his previous book, it too is also a cautionary tale. In the Epilogue "End of a Dark Age" (pages 195-199) he cautions us to be prepared.
What happened in the remote past could in some way happen again.
Note that there are several Youtube presentations by him describing his writing.
Eric Cline is a good speaker. I recommend listening to a few of his presentations on youtube.
Note 2. If you have not read 1177 B.C. the Year Civilization Collapsed I suggest you read the 2nd edition. It contains added material which is quite interesting.
~ 2024-08-08 ~
to Books index page.
-